Sunday, November 24, 2013

Lots
of folks visit Tuscaloosa this time of year to cheer on the University of
Alabama’s championship football team, the Crimson Tide. Others find themselves
in town on an Alabama food tour or traveling a music trail. So where are some
of the most popular places to eat and drink?

The
original Dreamland BBQ has been serving slabs of pork ribs since 1958. Many
Alabamans know the name, but John and Lily Bishop opened their first café in
Tuscaloosa as a rib and juke joint. The Bishops’ kids, Jeanette and John, Jr.,
still operate the restaurant as their parents did. Nothing much has changed,
although today’s menu has an addition of sides: potato salad, macaroni salad
and coleslaw. You can still see ribs being grilled over a wood fire where your order
will be freshly-made because, according to Jeanette, “…the ribs take four
minutes in the pit.” But be prepared to wait for a table, because the word has
spread beyond 1958’s neighborhood clientele to where Dreamland has become a
Tuscaloosa food institution.

Locals
drive out to rural Tuscaloosa to Nick’s in the Sticks, a.k.a. Nick’s Filet
House, for great steaks at hamburger prices, like the tender small filet for
$9.50! Make sure you don’t pass by because there’s no sign anymore. Owner Lloyd
Hegenbarth says it blew away in Hurricane Ivan. But the winds didn’t touch the
rustic décor inside. Dozens of signed dollar bills are still stapled to the
ceiling, Crimson Tide posters still hang on the walls and the well-worn
furnishings are still in place. Steaks, shrimp, chicken, salads, wings, burgers
and other “just plain eatin’s” adorn the menu. But their signature drink, the
invigorating Famous Nicodemus, is far from plain.

Downtown
Tuscaloosa heats up at night. The clubs along Greensboro Avenue, University
Boulevard, Fourth Street and 23rd Avenue offer a variety of entertainment.
Brown’s Corner Dueling Piano Bar and Grill allows its patrons to eat good food
while they listen to and interact with the pianists. The Gray Lady Bar is a
sports (uh, football) bar that features the championship years of the Crimson
Tide in a wood inlay floor. Don’t miss their two dollar beers and the green drink,
Sex with an Alligator. Enjoy cool jazz with a young hip crowd at Little
Willie’s.

Wednesday, November 6, 2013

On
Halloween, my best buds, Val and Joan, and I traveled the 45-minute drive from
Philadelphia to Doylestown, PA. Our main destination was to the Grace Kelly (a
Philly girl, too) exhibition at the James Michener Art Museum. The exhibit
displays her clothing, the Oscar for her performance in the film, The Country Girl, personal letters from
the British royal family and other famous folks, videos and home movies, other
memorabilia and more.

After
a quick and tasty lunch at Hickory Kitchens, we scurried over to the four o’clock
(and final) daily tour of Fonthill Castle. It was built between 1908 and 1912
by Henry Chapman Mercer, a brilliant, but eccentric, entrepreneur as a shrine
to his interests and business. As a proponent of the Arts and Crafts Movement,
he established the Moravian Pottery and Tile Works, a factory that still
produces tiles, and offers public tours, too. The factory can be found on the
70-acre estate that also houses the castle.

I
received a hint of what was to come when I entered. The first thing I saw was a
stuffed raven (a la Poe and Hitchcock). We were ushered into a nearby sunroom
to view an episode of the TV show, America’s
Castles that featured Fonthill. Soon our guided tour began. (No photography
allowed.)

Mercer
designed his home with the forethought of it becoming a museum after his death.
I can’t say much for his architectural skill, but he built an undoubtedly
unique structure entirely of concrete. That material was chosen as a deterrent
to fire which would have destroyed his treasures. Now when I say treasures, I
don’t mean the typical rich man’s treasures of gold and precious gems. Although
very wealthy, Mercer’s treasures consist of artwork, antiques, books (over 6,000,
documented and housed in concrete bookcases) and an extensive collection of
historic foreign tiles bought on his travels, that include Mesopotamian cuneiforms
dating back four thousand years and a section of Chinese roof tiles. He also
showcased his own handcrafted tiles. They are all embedded in concrete walls,
pillars and ceiling ribs.

I
didn’t see one room out of the 44 in the standard rectangular or square shape. The
200 windows did little to wash away the gloom, and the old-fashioned unshaded
bulbs with exposed filigree wires did little to help. The 32 staircases popped
up suddenly in unexpected spaces as we trekked through room after room. In spite
of his peculiarities, Mercer was a modern man of his day, and far ahead of many
builders. He included 10 bathrooms, fitted with tubs, sinks and flushing
toilets, electricity, an intercom system and, alongside 18 fireplaces, central
heating. The docent insisted that the home was more cheerful than it appears
today with colorful draperies, Oriental carpets and painted walls.

But
for me, maybe because I had the creepy Halloween spirit, I sensed that there were
other spirits lurking in Fonthill. Others may feel it, too, as they follow the
docent around during the darkening four o’clock tour during Standard Time. (If
she leads with a candle, then it’s all Poe.) The venue is open all year, and I
highly recommend it for people looking for something different (and, maybe, a
little macabre).

About Me

I became interested in travel as I studied art history. I wanted to view the wonderful paintings, sculpture and architecture in person. As I did so, I discovered the people and their lifestyles which intrigued me. I've continued to travel and have gone beyond the borders of Western art. Travel, foreign and domestic, has enriched my life and has broadened my perspective.